1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a vehicle behavior analysis system that records behavior or a surrounding situation of a motor vehicle during a certain period before and after a time of an accident or a time when a driver feels concern because he or she is close to being involved in an accident even though this situation does not result in an accident and that makes an after-the-fact analysis why the motor vehicle got involved in the situation.
2. Related Art
Recently, a vehicle-mountable driving recorder has been developed as a vehicle behavior data collecting unit that can automatically record an image of outside or inside of a motor vehicle (an automobile) while driving and make an after-the-fact analysis on an objective situation consequently of a driver's driving tendency at a time of an accident or at a time when a driver feels concern because he or she is close to being involved in an accident. There is a trend that this kind of a driving recorder should be mounted on, for example, a taxi in order to prevent an accident by making the after-the-fact analysis on a usual driving or to investigate an objective evidence of a cause of an accident when the accident occurs.
The vehicle behavior data collecting unit of this type sequentially and chronologically records behavior data such as image data of both outside and inside the vehicle while the vehicle is driving, acceleration data, speed data or position data in a memory. An objective analysis of an accident can then be made by reference to the behavior data stored in the memory by the use of another device, see Japanese Laid Open Patent Application No. 5-197858.
However, it takes time and labor to secure the desired data from chronologically consecutive and lengthy behavior data in the case of trying to make a timely analysis of the recorded behavior data after the fact. This is because it is very troublesome to judge what has happened and the place where it happened at a glance just by surveying the lengthy behavior data.